Let’s talk about software engineering title myths.

I’ve noticed a lot of talk lately about discrimination caused by applicant tracking systems, either intentional or not. One such topic — ageism — is getting even more attention now as the field of software engineering, which garnered its first big wave of employees in the late 90’s, is becoming even more mature. When looking at the interviewing process, years of experience and yes, titles, play a big role in evaluating qualifications. How much though should a title come into play? This industry doesn’t have well-defined standards. In my career, I’ve experienced titles that are in no way accurate or articulate what the person does. Let’s break down some myths of software engineering titles, keeping in mind how ATS systems can reject candidates based on a predefined set of rules. A theme will develop.

Photo by ThisisEngineering RAEng on Unsplash

Myth #1

Once you are a manager or director, you no longer write code.

This is certainly true in some organizations but not all. I currently have a director title and just this week I wrote Rust, TypeScript, and Ruby, and deployed to Cloudflare and AWS. In some organizations, the CTO writes code. So, If you are a hiring manager or recruiter and you are skipping candidates with these titles because you don’t believe they are hands-on, you are missing out on good candidates.